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Africa by Bike
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London (UK) to Gibraltar - 4500km - August to October 2004 On August 1st 2004, we were waved off from Greenwich by a fantastic crowd, and began our journey down to Portsmouth over a couple of days. We did in fact enjoy some lovely rays of English sunshine - our last for a while! We crossed the channel to Cherbourg, and then continued south through hilly Normandy, enjoying a huge number of Camembert cheeses enroute, before arriving in the Loire Valley and sampling Saumurīs excellent wines. A spell of very wet and unsettled weather saw us donning waterproofs and having to abandon canvas for the luxury of a hotel for one night in Perigeux, where the municipal campsite was flooded and deemed too dangerous! Some wonderful days cycling along the Vezere and Dordogne rivers, and through sunny vineyards brought us to the fairytale castle of Carcassonne, where we spent a few days recuperating before the challenge of the Pyrenees. Late August saw us toiling up the Ariege Valley with the lorries and the bargain hunting daytrippers destined for Andorra, and by early September we were crossing into Spain and heading for the coast after a brief visit to the mountain monastery of Montserrat. Then it was on down the coast towards Alicante, where we had a fantastic few days being looked after by the gang at The Orange House in Finestrat and catching up with Anna's sister. Then we tackled the murderous heat of Murcia, the magically undisturbed and remote Sierra de Cazorla and arrived in Granada in need of the cool and calm of the Alhambra! By the time we reached the Costa del Sol via the bright white towns around Ronda, things were cooling off with the end of summer, and after a brief visit to Gibraltar, we crossed the straight to Morocco on the 13th October. Tangier (Morocco) to Dakar (Senegal) - 4500km - October 2004 to January 2005 Entering African territories at Fnideq, we then headed inland, through Chefchaouen and the Rif mountains to the historical cities of Meknes and Fes, just as Ramadan began. Then it was on through the Middle Atlas mountains and up t Rabat and Casablanca. Some nice flat days along the coast as far as Safi, and then inland to Marrakech, Morocco's most famous city and the Berber capital. The massive bulk of the High Atlas came next, freshly dusted with snow as it was November, and from the Tizi-n-Test pass we could look down onto the Souss plain and the Saharan fringes beyond! The Ante Atlas mountains proved to be a tough challenge, but the beautiful Ameln Valley and quiet town of Tafraoute were more than adequate compensation! At Goulimine we entered real desert for the first time, and sand was the order of the day for the whole of December as we travelled through a locust plague to Tan Tan, Laayoune and on to Dakhla. Into Mauritania, and a five-day epic from Nouadhibou saw us arriving in Nouakchott just in time for Christmas! We reached St Louis inside Senegal for New Year, and enjoyed a well-earned rest before moving southwards again to the Pointe des Almadies in Dakar - Africa's westernmost point! Next came a dusty ride to the Gambian border before we struck off eastwards on a two-week tour of tiny Gambia, up the north bank road and then back to the capital, Banjul, on the south bank. With the tranquil, palm-fringed Basse Casamance district of Senegal now behind us, we are looking to the south again and heading for the Guineas! Dakar (Senegal) to Kano (Nigeria) - 5000km - February to May 2005 After a week or so taking in the sights and sounds of Guibea Bissau's intriguing Bijagos Islands, we'll head inland into Guinea. From the border, roads permitting, we will cycle to Faranah and then follow the young Niger river down to the major market town of Bamako, capital of Mali. For several hundred kilometres the Niger will be our companion, as we make our way along it's banks to Djenne, a medieval adobe (mud-brick) city which is dominated by the Grande Mosquee. Legendary Timbuktu, for centuries the most important city in the region and the goal of many an European expedition, is the next destination as we continue north-east back into the fringes of the Sahara. Here we leave the river and strike out south towards Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso, and onwards to Ghana, where we'll have our first experience of Link's work at first hand. More than likely we'll spend some time in Ghana, recuperating from a hard couple of months, and learning more about Link's projects. At this point Anna will head home for a fortnight - by plane - as her sister is getting married! Before long though, it'll be time to continue East into Togo and Benin, where we'll wave a final goodbye to the Atlantic as we head north-east into Nigeria towards Kano, the old crossroads of the trans-saharan trading routes. Our next sight of ocean will be in Dar Es Salaam, over 6000km to the east. Kano (Nigeria) to Khartoum (Sudan) - 5500km - June to August 2005 From Kano, we'll head south once again to take in the rainforests of central Africa. Since so much of this area is politically unstable and unsafe for travel, we'll eventually have to detour north through Chad and Sudan to continue our journey, but before then we'll make our way down into Cameroon, towards the capital, Yaounde, a pleasant city deep in the rainforest. Then we begin the detour northwards, through (depending on the political situation) the Central African Republic into Chad and back into the desert. Here we'll resume the journey east, from N'djamena to Abeche, and on towards the Sudanese border at Al-Geneina. Once over the border a couple of weeks cycling through the hilly scrub of central Sudan will bring us to the capital, Khartoum. Khartoum (Sudan) to Dar Es Salaam (Tanzania) - 5000km - August to December 2005 We hope to cycle across the border from Khartoum into Ethiopia, but depending on the political situation this area may be unsafe, in which case we'll be forced to fly. In any case, we'll be setting off in early August, and making our way south through the Ethiopian highlands towards the Kenyan border. We'll pass through the forested Bale Mountains National Park, reaching altitudes of nearly 3000m - the highest we'll have been since Morocco. Hopefully we'll miss the main rainy season which should finish around mid September. Arriving into Kenya, we'll pass Lake Turkana and Mount Kenya on our way south through the central highlands and Rift Valley towards Nairobi. A side trip around Lake Victoria to visit LCD's projects in Uganda, and the mountain gorillas in Rwanda will follow, before we resume our southward journey into Tanzania, passing the Serengeti plains and Mount Kilimajaro. A long ride down the coast should see us arriving into Dar Es Salaam by Christmas. Stage 6 - Southern Africa Dar Es Salaam (Tanzania) to Cape Town (South Africa) - 5500km - January to May 2006 Early in the New Year, we'll leave the coast at Dar and head up once again into the higher ground of the Rift Valley. Turning South at Mbeya, we'll cross the border into Malawi and follow the shore of Lake Malawi through the country to Lilongwe. Here we'll turn West again towards Lusaka in Zambia, and onwards to Victoria Falls. After crossing the Zambezi into Botswana, a few weeks cycling through the bush will bring us to the capital, Gaborone, on the South African border. One final detour to visit the highland kingdom of Lesotho, and with luck we'll be in Cape Town by late in the southern hemisphere summer, around the end of April or beginning of May. More information about the trip will be posted here as our plans progress - in the meantime please feel free to email us with any queries. We can be reached at info@africabybike.org |
